GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Sept. 2, 2010) – Richard M. DeVos will receive Acton Institute’s Faith and Freedom Award in October for his remarkable accomplishments in business, American cultural life and philanthropy.
Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, cited DeVos for his “decades-long exemplary leadership in business, his dedication to the promotion of liberty, his courage in maintaining and defending the free and virtuous society, and his conviction that the roots of liberty and the morally-charged life are to be found in the eternal truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition.”
DeVos will receive the award on October 21 at Acton’s 20th Anniversary dinner in Grand Rapids. For more on the event, please visit: www.acton.org/dinner
Few American stories better encapsulate the value of hard work and free enterprise than that of Richard M. “Rich” DeVos. In the late 1940s, DeVos and friend Jay Van Andel became independent distributors for Nutrilite. The California manufacturer of vitamins used a person-to-person direct-selling approach that DeVos and Van Andel adopted when starting Amway from their Ada, Mich., homes in 1959. Together, they refined the direct-selling method of offering individuals the opportunity to build businesses of their own that became the model for scores of direct-selling companies and marked the start of a major worldwide direct-selling industry. Amway, a subsidiary of Alticor, now operates in more than 80 countries and territories around the world and enables more than 3 million people to own independent businesses.
DeVos and his wife, Helen, generously support hospitals, colleges and universities, arts organizations and Christian causes in their hometown of Grand Rapids, and they support numerous organizations in Central Florida. Among the many institutions they have helped create are DeVos Children’s Hospital, the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, the DeVos Communications Center at Calvin College, the DeVos Campus of Grand Valley State University, and the DeVos Place convention center. Florida contributions include the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida, and the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation. DeVos owns the Orland Magic NBA franchise.
DeVos is also an accomplished author. In his books, DeVos presents his most poignant stories and important principles. Compassionate Capitalism (1994) outlines 16 principles for integrating compassion with free enterprise. A later work inspired by DeVos’ heart transplant, Hope from My Heart (1997), imparts ten lessons for life on subjects including persistence, confidence, optimism, respect, and faith. President Gerald R. Ford hailed the book as “exciting, inspiring, and down-to-earth with God-given advice for everyone." Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People (2008) continues DeVos’ mission of sharing wisdom from his remarkable life experience and his philosophy.
DeVos is a graduate of Grand Rapids Christian High School and attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids. He served in the United States Air Force from 1944 to 1946. Rich and Helen DeVos, who have been married more than 60 years, have four children and 16 grandchildren.
The Faith and Freedom Award was established as part of the Acton Institute’s tenth anniversary celebration in 2000. The award recognizes an individual who exemplifies commitment to faith and freedom through outstanding leadership in civic, business, or religious life. For this award, the Institute commissioned a sculpture of Lord Acton, the Institute’s namesake, who held firmly to the two pillars of faith and freedom.
Past recipients include, with date of award: John Marks Templeton (2000); Cardinal Van Thuan (2002); Rocco Buttiglione (2004); Charles W. Colson (2006); Mart Laar (2007); and William F. Buckley (2008).